Welcome to the LDV NNR ringing blog, this blog is designed to share the experiences, findings and tales from a group of dedicated ringers. We specialise in conservation orientated research projects, largely focusing on wildfowl, waders, owls and birds of conservation concern, in and around the Vale of York NNR's.

NB - Whilst the purpose of this blog was initially designed to cover our nationally important wildfowl ringing activities, it now also features wildlife and work posts, explaining how we manage the NNR for both wildlife and people.

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Thursday 19 April 2012

19/04/12 - The power of plastic strikes (again!)

Kane Brides from the WWT has been in touch again this week with details of another Whooper Swan recovery. 'K3K' has been sighted in Ross-shire, Scotland, it was originally ringed (as an adult) in the LDV at North Duffield Carrs during the 2008 cannon net catch. This is the second Whooper re-sighting that we've had of late - a few weeks ago data came back on 'K3H' - a bird ringed during the same catch in 2008, had been sighted in Norway - see Norway...? No way! for details.

2008 Whooper catch - North Duffield Carrs
 

'K3K' was present in the valley during the winter of 08/09 and then returned the following year and wintered in the valley during January 2010. It was next heard of on 24th February 2010 when it was caught at the WWT centre at Caerlaverock, Dumfries, Scotland, presumably when it was returning northwards on its return migration to Iceland. It wasn’t seen or heard of until the following winter when it returned to the valley, it was first sighted on 26/11/10 and last sighted on 12/03/11. The most recent sightings have been the winter just gone - 2011/2012 - instead of wintering in the valley, 'K3K' returned once again to Scotland and on 22/11/11 it was sighted in Fearn, Drome, Nr Balintore (Ross-shire), followed by Tullich Farm, Nr Balintore (Ross-shire) on 16th & 18th March 2012, so clearly a change in wintering area.

History of Whooper Swan ‘K3K’:

Year

Method

Date

Location







2008

Caught

30/11/2008

LDV, North Yorkshire
2009

Sighting

03/01/2009

LDV, North Yorkshire
2009

Sighting

06/01/2009

LDV, North Yorkshire
2009

Sighting

08/01/2009

LDV, North Yorkshire
2009

Sighting

09/01/2009

LDV, North Yorkshire
2009

Sighting

19/02/2009

LDV, North Yorkshire
2009

Sighting

26/02/2009

LDV, North Yorkshire
2009

Sighting

07/03/2009

LDV, North Yorkshire
2009

Sighting

16/03/2009

LDV, North Yorkshire
2010

Sighting

02/01/2010

LDV, North Yorkshire
2010

Sighting

18/01/2010

LDV, North Yorkshire
2010

Sighting

19/01/2010

LDV, North Yorkshire
2010

Re-caught

24/02/2010

Caerlaverock, Dumfries
2010

Sighting

26/11/2010

LDV, North Yorkshire
2010

Sighting

12/12/2010

LDV, North Yorkshire
2010

Sighting

19/12/2010

LDV, North Yorkshire
2010

Sighting

24/12/2010

LDV, North Yorkshire
2010

Sighting

31/12/2010

LDV, North Yorkshire
2011

Sighting

03/01/2011

LDV, North Yorkshire
2011

Sighting

31/01/2011

LDV, North Yorkshire
2011

Sighting

05/02/2011

LDV, North Yorkshire
2011

Sighting

01/03/2011

LDV, North Yorkshire
2011

Sighting

05/03/2011

LDV, North Yorkshire
2011

Sighting

12/03/2011

LDV, North Yorkshire
2011

Sighting

22/11/2011

Fearn, Drome, Nr Balintore, Ross-shire
2012

Sighting

16/03/2012

Tullich Farm, Nr Balintore, Ross-shire
2012

Sighting

18/03/2012

Tullich Farm, Nr Balintore, Ross-shire

All the sightings from the valley were recorded by Peter & Janet Roworth, so thanks goes to them both for taking the time to get out & about looking for colour-ringed birds, it really is worthwhile especially when it leads to piecing together a birds journey. 

Whooper Swans - North Duffield Carrs
 
 Peter Roworth

The second recovery to come our way this week has been that of a colour-ringed Coot. It’s one from a few years ago which was first reported in 2010 but the sighting and photograph have only just come our way. The bird in question is the one from our latest blog post about colour-ringed birds (Look out look out colour-ringed birds are about!). It was ringed as a young male on 20/10/08 at North Duffield Carrs and was next seen on 29/11/10 at Cleethorpes Country Park, Lincolnshire. It was then seen a few days later on 06/12/10 by Colin Smale who took the superb photograph below. 

LDV colour-ringed Coot - Cleethorpes - 06/12/10
Colin Smale - FOTOLINCS.COM

Colin takes wildlife photographs on a regular basis around the Lincolnshire area, these can be seen on his website - http://www.fotolincs.com/ or you can follow him on twitter at - fotolincs. After tracking down the colour-ringed Coot and several other colour-ringed birds it resulted in an article being published in the Lincolnshire Today Magazine, this can be read here (page 71-72).

Colin has been photographing birds for many years but has recently become interested in colour-ringing after spotting several birds with colours on his 'patch'. He was most intrigued after taking photos of a flock of Knot and realising there were two birds with coloured flags. This is a snippet taken from the magazine article - "As I watched I suddenly noticed among the sea of greenish legs a splash of red - with one bird sporting a red ring with lettering on it. I couldn't quite see the letters so I photographed the bird, and when I enlarged the picture I could clearly see the letters 'ENY'. Within a few minutes there was a second colour-ringed bird. It too had a yellow 'tab' with the letters 'LUC' - which I thought very appropriate!"

Norwegian flagged Knot
 
Colin Smale - FOTOLINCS.COM

Eventually Colin found out that 'LUC' was ringed as an adult in May 2009 at Marnes in Northern Norway - about 1400 miles North East of Cleethorpes. It was seen a few days later in the same area but then it wasn't seen again until it appeared infront of Colin a year later - again in Cleethorpes. It's mate 'ENY' was ringed on the same beach but two years earlier in May 2007. She was seen again two years later at North Brenna in Porsanaga, Norway, and not seen again until she turned up with 'LUC' in Cleethorpes! For more details of Colin's colour-ringed sightings and to read the rest of this article click on the link above. Once again all the information that has been gained wouldn't have been possible without catching and colour-ringing these birds, showing again the importance of colour-ringing.

Colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit
Colin Smale - FOTOLINCS.COM

It's really great (for us as ringers) to know that there's folk out there like Colin who enjoy taking wildlife photographs yet at the same time are contributing to the collection of ringing data and helping us to piece together the lives and journeys of the birds we love to watch!

Colin Smale - FOTOLINCS.COM

2 comments:

  1. I've been following this blog for some time now and I must say what a great blog site it is. Very reader friendly...so well done.
    Thanks for mention re Whoopers and good old K3K. I think being able to look for darvics/colour rings is a great way to engage with bird watchers and in the hope gather more data and this is proving to be true.
    Hope you're having some good whimbrel sightings. I found 10 birds in a wet meadow near to Saltfleetby on the 22nd, but alas no colour rings!
    Cheers
    Peter

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for your kind comments Peter - pleased your liking the blog :) Yes - the use of colour-rings is a really useful research tool and the fact that birdwatchers can join in with the projects and collect data is great - in fact without that involvement it just doesn't work. We are certainly missing the efforts of Janet and yourself in the LDV at Whooper Swan and Whimbrel time!

    ReplyDelete